Regret's a Second Chance
by AMT149
Summary: Harry finds out that unrequited love is a painful thing, especially when it's laced with regret. Pre-Slash.


Disclaimer: The characters and places in this story do not belong to me in any way nor am I making money off of them. They are all property of J.K. Rowling; I just like to play around with them a bit.

**Warning: **This is a **Video!Fic**. The Plot belongs to the Maker of the video (See A/N at bottom). The plot is not mine; I am given a Video to follow. Watch the video, read the story, then review. Don't flame me for what isn't mine.

* * *

><p><strong>Regret's a Second Chance<strong>

Harry Potter was moping. He was leaning on the wall by the entrance hall as he watched his friends leave to do Christmas shopping in Hogsmeade. He wished he could go with them, though he didn't think he'd enjoy it much and would therefore be bad company. He had told Hermione and Ron he was afraid of being hounded by reporters although it was only partially true. He didn't mind the two of them going without him, because there was only one person he wanted to go with. And the person he wanted to go with just happened to be one person who wouldn't appreciate his presence: Draco Malfoy.

The Slytherin Prince gave him a sense of life. Malfoy was the only thing that Harry wanted to pay attention to. He didn't want to deal with his celebrity status, which had grown worse since he killed Voldemort; he didn't want to think about the multitude of funerals he'd attended that summer; he hadn't wanted to attend all the Death Eater trials he had gone to. Harry didn't like life after the war, and often found himself missing the life before he went horcrux-hunting and stopped Voldemort's rise to power.

Malfoy was the only thing that made Harry feel normal or normal for him anyway. Draco and Narcissa had both managed to escape Azkaban; Narcissa because she had saved Harry's life during the Battle of Hogwarts, and Draco because proof that he had not chosen to become a Death Eater on his own free will but was forced by Voldemort had come up. It was the results of Draco's trial that had fueled Harry's "Malfoy infatuation". He felt he never really knew the boy and wanted to know more about his childhood nemesis.

Draco hadn't changed much from the prat Harry had known him to be; though he no longer made threats involving his father, he kept his role as the Slytherin Ice Prince quite well. While he replaced Crabbe and Goyle, one being dead and the other in Azkaban, with other fat lards, his group of friends hadn't really changed. He was still a right git, but at least he had given up calling muggle-borns "mudbloods" and emphasizing pureblood superiority.

Harry had expected to stop obsessing over the blond after a few days but just the opposite happened. He found himself beginning to wonder what Malfoy was really like under the cold mask he always wore. During his observations, he caught a glimpse of emotion in Malfoy's silver eyes at dinner the first day back when someone brought up him being a Death Eater. Harry felt a pang in his chest at the raw hurt that rarely showed through.

Harry hadn't known what to make of it at first. He had always paid attention to Malfoy, but now that he looked back at it, he wondered if it had really been because he thought of Malfoy as an enemy. Ever since that first day on the train they had never been able to stay away from each other. He tried to deny his attraction but the memory of wanting to run his hands through silky golden hair shinning in the sunlight during a Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match kept assaulting him until he gave in.

The more he watched and followed, the more the walls protecting Malfoy's heart seemed to become transparent to him. He found out about Malfoy's favorite subjects and hobbies. He could tell when Malfoy was hurt, happy, or angry. The Malfoy he used to only see as a rich, spoiled, pompous ex-Death Eater, he now saw as handsome, witty, strong-willed and, although he didn't show it, did have a heart.

Soon, _Malfoy_ morphed into _Draco_.

Sighing, Harry stepped away from the wall feeling empty knowing the blond would never going to accept his hand in so much as friendship after Harry denied his offer their first year on the train. It was something that Harry regretted every minute of every day. He would never know what could have been; they could have been friends, or possibly..._more_.

He was the last of the crowd leaving and he pulled out his invisibility cloak from his bag. If Draco didn't want to see him, he wasn't going to _see_ him.

Draco, Pansy, Blaise, along with MacDougal and Warrington—the two that replaced Crabbe and Goyle—were in the doorway by the Three Broomsticks when Harry found them. He watched Draco laugh at something Blaise said before waving at Blaise and Pansy before stepping outside. Harry's heart clenched. He could imagine it being _him_ next to Draco, with Draco to laugh with _him_ like that...

Harry walked closer, trying to keep up with the three boys as they walked off to do their shopping. Maybe he'd hear about something that Draco wanted and he could give it to him as a Christmas present. Draco loved presents, didn't he?

xXxXxXx

Harry poked at his eggs. He wasn't sitting alone at the Gryffindor table but he might as well be. He knew he had been pushing his friends further and further away from him this year but he just didn't know what to say. It was either all about his being the bloody savior or something about the war. Ron and Hermione were there by his side, but they were too busy bickering to notice him. Even Ginny had given up on sending him hints that she'd like to start up what he ended before the war. Harry wasn't even sure if he had ever intended to get back together with her when he told her it was over. He _had_ been a bit obsessed with Malfoy that year, as Ron had so plainly put it.

No, he couldn't talk to his friends about approaching Draco. He wasn't sure what they'd think, for one. It would be something he would have to do alone. Surely, it couldn't be that hard.

Harry looked up at the Slytherin table and waited for Draco to leave for class. It didn't take long, as there wasn't much time left for breakfast. Harry got up after him. They had Double Potions together in the morning and Harry managed to call out to him before he made it through Slughorn's door. "Dra-Malfoy!"

Draco turned, sneering, "To what do I owe this pleasure, Potty?"

"Can I talk to you?" Harry asked. He eyed MacDougal and Warrington. "Alone?"

Draco narrowed his eyes, but waved his underlings away. "Now talk. I don't want to spend any longer in your presence than I have to."

"Can't we just talk civilly for a moment?"

"If you don't spit it out," Draco nodded towards the classroom "we're going to be late."

Harry sighed, "Fine. Remember when I first met you?"

Draco tensed. It wasn't noticeable to anyone who didn't know him well. He nodded with false indifference. "On the Hogwarts Express."

"Oh. I meant the time at Madam Malkin's." Harry fidgeted. "Either way, you treated me nicely."

"I wanted to be your friend then, since you've obviously forgotten." Draco narrowed his eyes. "Then again, you _would_ have forgotten. I'm not worth much to you, oh no, you like to hang around weasels and know-it-alls."

"It's not like that. I've been thinking that maybe I wasn't very reasonable. You just weren't very nice to Ron, and he was my first friend. I didn't realize that you were the first person our age to actually think I wasn't a freak, and I kept comparing you to my cousin. I just never really got to know you so maybe I should have...well..." Harry babbled and he stared at his feet.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "What if I said I only wanted to be your friend because you were Harry-Bloody-Potter?"

"I don't believe you."

Draco sneered, "Are you doing this out of pity, Potter? Feeling guilty for landing my father in jail, for running my family, for destroying my life?"

"How did you manage to put those things together?" Draco raised an eyebrow, but otherwise gave no response. "This has nothing to do with the War. It's just what I said it was. I, er, want to be your friend."

"I don't give a fuck about friendship."

"I just, you know, hoped—maybe—that you didn't want to be enemies anymore." He looked up. "Will you consider it?"

"I'm not your plaything, Potter. You don't _reject_ me," his silver eyes flashed with anger at the word, "then expect me to come back at your beck and call." He turned without waiting for a response and walked into the classroom.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered to the air.

xXxXxXx

Class the next week was hell.

It mainly consisted of more taunts and insults than usual from Draco and, when they caught on, his cronies. It hurt, but no more than expected. Eventually, Harry didn't even bother faking an angry insult back; he just let Draco say whatever he wanted and then nodded and ducked his head to keep from meeting those hate-filled mercury eyes. Draco must have realized after a week of insults that it didn't provoke a reaction because he made a one hundred eighty degrees change.

The first time it happened was during breakfast. Harry was staring down at his plate, depressed, when Ron nudged him saying, "Mate, The Ferret's been staring at you since you sat down."

Harry looked up at the Slytherin table and sure enough, Draco was staring at him. When their eyes met, Draco smiled at him. He actually _smiled _at him—a real smile, not his trademark smirk.

Before Harry's shock wore off, Draco licked his lips and blew a kiss. Harry's eyes widened and he was horrified at the hope that was immediately triggered. He could imagine those lips pressing against his; imagine that smile being his and his alone... Harry tried to shut down those thoughts before his blush became too noticeable. He must not have succeeded, because Malfoy's eyes were sparkling wickedly.

Harry was still distracted when they got to Potions. Slughorn pardoned him with the excuse of having a "special someone" on his mind again when his potion turned out lime green instead of the pale pink it was supposed to be. It was terribly embarrassing when Malfoy looked over from his desk across the room and winked when Slughorn said this. Even worse was when the Slytherin had smirked at Harry's blush.

Professor Kirk, this year's new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor, decided that in the name of house unity, he would pair up the class so that each dueling practice pair consisted of a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Malfoy made it his mission to become Harry's partner, whispering, "I trust you not to hurt me, Potter," as his reasoning. Harry was so busy trying to process the words that he completely missed Draco's hex flying at him.

Herbology should have been fine since Sprout knew better than to put Harry and Draco together. Harry never realized how often he watched Draco until the other boy caught his eye from the opposite side of the greenhouse and gave him a small wave. Harry didn't know what to think of this. He was only sure about one thing: Draco's new gentlemanly manner caused him to fall in love with the blond all over again. God only knew how charming Draco could be when he wanted to.

Harry had been sure that he could get Draco out of his mind for at least the duration of Divination and Astronomy since Draco wasn't in those classes with him. Much to his dismay, though, the topic of discussion was arrangement of constellations that only proved to remind Harry, once again, that Draco Malfoy was named after the dragon of stars.

However, all those events became nothing when he opened the note Draco charmed to fly to Harry in the middle of Transfiguration a week later:

_Dearest Potter,_

_Words can't describe how I feel for you. I'm flattered, really, knowing you want me (don't bother denying it). Just for the record, I was playing around with you, Scarhead._ _It has been amusing to encourage your pathetic little crush on me, but in case you didn't realize I've only been toying with you, allow me to clarify: I never did, and never will, like a little pitiful narcissist brat like you._

_Sincerely (just this once),  
><em>_Draco Malfoy_

The way it was stated just added to the pain. He supposed he knew none of it was true, but he couldn't help but hope. It was bad enough that Draco rejected Harry's offer of a truce but for Draco to guess how Harry felt about him and for Draco to use it against him...well, it hurt.

Harry could understand how Draco couldn't get over the rejection and animosity built up after so long. Knowing that he never gave Draco a chance made him feel horrible. Harry had always called Draco unfair, but he felt like a total hypocrite. Sure, Draco was mean to Ron that day on the train but that was all his father's doing. Maybe if Harry had been friends with him Draco would have been less of a prat about it. Harry sighed. Being with both Draco and Ron? His wishful thinking was getting out of hand.

xXxXxXx

It was a beautiful day out. The sky was free of clouds except for a few white puffs scattered about and the lake reflected sparkles across the lush grass. Harry and Hermione sat down under their favorite tree to study. Ron had said he would come with them but he had been pulled into a pick-up Quidditch game with a group of their friends. It had been a while since they'd just hung out together and Hermione could tell Harry was slightly edgy.

When they were done spreading out their homework and textbooks Hermione spoke, "Harry, I'm worried about you."

Harry looked down. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Harry, it's obvious that you like Malfoy. He's not good for you. You of all people should know that." Hermione moved so that Harry was forced to look at her.

"I can't help it, Hermione." Harry tugged on his fringe. "I think I'm in love with him. And it's my own fault for ruining things between us."

"It's not all your fault, you know. Besides, you know what Malfoy's like. Just think about how he treated us all these years."

"He's a good person inside, Hermione. He just doesn't let anyone see him as vulnerable." He really is stubborn, Hermione thought.

"But what about his family? You know how much Malfoy looked up to his father when he was younger. I'm fairly sure the odds of Malfoy and becoming a Death Eater would still be pretty high," She pointed out.

"Maybe if I had been friends with Draco, there would have been another option other than becoming a Death Eater. Do you remember sixth year? He had looked depressed at becoming a murderer and he wouldn't have done it if not for worry for his family's safety. Dumbledore gave him the option of joining our side if he wanted to protect his family that night in the Astronomy tower. It was just that Snape killed Dumbledore before anything could be done about it. What if that was changed? It would be one less victim of Voldemort. The possibilities are endless, Hermione. I killed those possibilities."

"Harry, how could you be sure? I know Malfoy only joined to save his parents but he was willing to kill for them. What if he had handed you over to Voldemort?" Hermione's eyes were frantic.

"Then I would deal with it. I'm not afraid of Voldemort."

"Harry! Don't let him blind you! Think of the wizarding world! You saved them, Harry! Is Malfoy worth that sacrifice?"

"I'm not sacrificing anyone. I've thought it over and I honestly believe that Draco only chose that path because it was the _only_ one. We've made a lot of decisions these last seven years. We've only walked one path out of the many; it's impossible to know what would have happened."

"The butterfly effect," said Hermione. "It all narrows down to the first choice. You're saying that if you had shaken his hand that day on train, everything would have changed."

"Yes."

"But it's too late, isn't it? You'll have to put up with him no matter how much you regret it."

"I can't do this anymore, 'Mione. I can't live with him hating me." Harry jerked his head backward, slamming it against the tree they were sitting under.

"Have you even talked to him?"

"I tried. He didn't even let me get three words out before he started being a prat again." He buried his face into his hands. "He doesn't know why I'm such an easy target for him nowadays but he knows that what he does hurts me. He takes pride in it, Hermione. When I so much as mentioned that he wanted to be my friend, he said that it was only because of political reasons. The-Boy-Who-Lived and all that." Hermione opened her mouth to interrupt, but Harry just shook his head. "It's a lie. He didn't know I was Harry Potter until we were on the Hogwarts Express. I met him before that." Harry recounted his encounter with Malfoy in Madame Malkin's for Hermione.

"So he didn't know who you were and he was _nice_? That's a little hard to imagine."

Harry nodded. "Draco didn't hate me when I met him in the shop. Not before I rejected his hand on the train. I wasn't even dressed like a wizard, I was wearing Dudley's hand-me-downs, but Malfoy didn't treat me like a freak. It doesn't matter what Pureblood nonsense he spouted, it was all talk."

They were silent for a while. "Harry...what are you going to do about it?" Hermione looked up from the book that she had been too distracted to read.

"I don't know. But I can't keep it up anymore, Hermione." Harry shifted his hands, digging the heels into his eyes so the tears budding in his eyes wouldn't spill over. "Maybe in a different time, a different world, we would've been more than this."

Hermione eyes grew wide at Harry's words. "I think...I think I can help you," she said after some hesitation.

Harry brought his head out of his hands. "You have an idea?"

"Yes. It's very dangerous, mind you, so I don't think you should use it, but I can tell I'm not going to be able to persuade you otherwise, and I don't want you to do anything reckless." Hermione warned.

Harry laughed bitterly. "Since when have I _not _done anything reckless?"

The corners of Hermione's mouth curved into a small smile but her tone remained just as serious. "Remember how I had a time turner back in third year?" Harry nodded. "Well, I was interested in the magical theory behind how they worked, and while I was researching them I found that there's a type of time turner that literally reverses you in time. It's built on the theory of a normal time turner but the fundamental point of _going_ _back _in time is replaced by the theory of _reversing _time. In simpler words,instead of having two of your bodies in one time period, you are put back in your original body of a chosen time. It's created by a time turner that's soaked in the time-reverser potion—which I'll have you know is a short but complicated potion—for at least twenty-four hours. The side effects of a time reverser is that your life that you lived after the time that you pick will take on a dreamlike quality as you live you new life. You'll still remember everything; you just won't feel like you actually did them at first. As time passes, you'll start to forget them."

"That doesn't sound very dangerous."

"Meddling with time is always dangerous."

"I'll do it. I'll do anything for Draco." Harry's eyes once again took on the look of determination that he had worn the first seventeen years of his life. He no longer looked like a heartbroken boy, but the powerful wizard that even Voldemort could not best. Hermione knew that there wasn't anything she could do to stop him now.

Hermione sighed. "I knew that you'd say that. I'll start making the time-reversing potion tonight. My time-turner needs to soak in it for little less than a day before it can be used. But think it over one last time, please, Harry. You'll have to fight Voldemort again. And you can't change things before it's time. Promise me you won't go hunting for horcruxes before you even learn lumos."

"I'll have to relearn everything?"

"Yes, Harry. You'll think that everything you've already done is just a figure of your imagination after a week at most."

"Thank you, Hermione." He pulled his friend a hug. "You're a great friend. I'll have to make sure we're friends when I get into that world."

Hermione sniffled, unable to hold back her tears. "What about Ron? I doubt he'll be very accepting of Malfoy."

"I know, 'Mione, but I have to do this. I'll try to make it up to Ron, but I don't know if he'll let me." He squeezed her before letting go. "I suppose there's no point in finishing homework anymore, is there?"

She let out a teary-eyed laugh. "I suppose you should go see Ron. This is going to be the last time you two will be friends, you know."

"I will. Guess this is the end of the Golden Trio then, eh?" Harry cracked a smile as he stood, brushing off grass that had stuck to his trousers.

Hermione gave him a weak smile, "Guess we better make the most of what time we have left."

xXxXxXx

Harry fingered the ice-cold time reverser hanging around his neck. He could feel Hermione silently watching him from where she was seated behind him on the common room couch. "Well this is it. I'm ready, Hermione." He turned to face her.

Hermione nodded as she reluctantly tapped her wand against the time turner, which glowed white like sun reflected off snow. "Think about the time which you want to go back to—and nothing else—when you turn it." She looked a little numb from saying goodbye so many times.

"Thank you, Hermione." Harry pictured his first time boarding the Hogwarts Express at Kings Cross station. He flipped the time reverser. "Goodbye."

A blinding ice-blue light spiraled out of the little hourglass, blinding Harry's view of the Gryffindor common room. His eyes fluttered shut as the light sent waves of pain through him.

He slightly panicked. Hermione hadn't said that it would hurt. Maybe they had done something wrong. He was dying. He was sure of it. It wasn't possible to survive this much pain. _I love you, Draco_, the thought flitted across his mind just before he blacked out.

xXxXxXx

Harry blinked. Three boys entered the train compartment. The pale boy in the middle looked at Harry. "Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Harry, a sense of déjà-vu hovering just out of reach in the back of his mind. Harry's eyes flickered to the two thickset and mean-looking bodyguards surrounding the pale boy.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

The name was familiar, yet altogether new. He had spoken it for eight years in hatred and in love. All the same, it had never seemed more foreign, as if it held new meaning. New promises. New futures.

Harry's epiphany was interrupted by Ron's cough, which was obviously hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy turned his attention to the redhead.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's.

A lifetime seemed to pass as he looked at it. Draco Malfoy's thin hand stretched out to him. It was a thin line between love and hate. Harry could feel Ron's stare on him. He couldn't help but feel bad for his first friend, his best mate. Harry looked up, his eyes meeting Ron's blue ones, then locking on Draco's mercury ones.

He took Draco's hand.

Draco's face softened slightly, a genuine smile breaching the Malfoy mask as a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. It had only lasted a second before the smirk that twisted his face was back. Harry was the only one who had caught sight of the change at all.

"Harry?" Betrayal lined Ron's voice, and Harry winced slightly.

"We can still be friends, Ron. But this is important to me too." Harry took a step towards Ron, though Draco's hand in his own tugged him back.

"You don't even know him! He's a _Malfoy_, Harry! His family's made of dark wizards!" Ron shouted, hurt.

"And yet he_ chose_ me, Weasley." Draco's triumphant smile was so huge it seemed to radiate. "Pity, really." The smirk countered the words.

Draco pulled on Harry's hand, "Let's go. Don't want to be hanging around riff-raff like this."

With a mouthed, "I'm sorry", Harry let himself be led to the compartment where Draco and his friends' voices overlapped in their excitement in asking about him and telling him about themselves.

xXxXxXx

Harry stood in line with the other first years, fidgeting from nervousness. Draco looked over at him, the worry quickly masked by fake irritation on all his face except for his eyes. He slipped his hand into Harry's, and pointed his head at the four-legged stool and pointed wizard's hat Professor McGonagall had placed in front of the first years.

"You only need to try on the hat."

Harry nodded, as the hat twitched and the hat began to sing:

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
><em>_But don't judge on what you see,  
><em>_I'll eat myself if you can find  
><em>_A smarter hat than me.  
><em>_You can keep your bowlers black,  
><em>_You top hats sleek and tall,  
><em>_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
><em>_And I can cap them all.  
><em>_There's nothing hidden in your head  
><em>_The Sorting Hat can't see,  
><em>_So try me on and I will tell you  
><em>_Where you ought to be.  
><em>_You might belong in Gryffindor,  
><em>_Where dwell the brave at heart,  
><em>_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
><em>_Set Gryffindors apart;  
><em>_You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
><em>_Where they are just and loyal,  
><em>_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
><em>_And unafraid of toil;  
><em>_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
><em>_If you've a ready mind,  
><em>_Where those of wit and learning,  
><em>_Will always find their kind;  
><em>_Or perhaps in Slytherin  
><em>_You'll make your real friends,  
><em>_Those Cunning folk use any means  
><em>_To achieve their ends.  
><em>_So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
><em>_And don't get in a flap!  
><em>_You in safe hands (though I have none)  
><em>_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song and bowed to the four tables before going still again. Harry smiled weakly as Draco squeezed his hand and whispered, "See_?_" He wasn't worried about what they had to do. He was worried about the hat. Would the hat insist he be in Slytherin this time? Would Draco be his friend if he went to Gryffindor? Would he loose Draco again? Harry fidgeted nervously as said child practically strutted to the Slytherin table, looking pleased with his sorting as he winked at Harry.

"Potter, Harry!"

Harry stepped forward unaware of the hissed whispers around him. The hat dropped low over his eyes and he waited.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness yet —and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting...So where shall I put you?"

Harry gripped the edge of the stool at the familiar words. He wasn't going to ask it for "not Slytherin" this time. He would throw himself into the snakes' pit for Draco, who was watching intently.

"Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "You could be great, I suppose, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin may help you on the way to greatness. But Gryffindor will allow you to fair better from the look of things..."

Harry could have sworn it the hat continued mumbling in his ear for a whole minute while it debated between Gryffindor and Slytherin. From the sound of it, the hat wanted to put him in Gryffindor more, it never seemed to want to put Harry where we wanted to be, but was still comparing the two. The whispers in the great hall started to build up again to the hat's silence.

"Is he a squib?"

"He can't be. He's _Harry Potter_!"

"Why isn't the hat saying anything?"

"He got the letter, didn't he?"

Harry peeked out from under the hat to catch a glimpse of Draco's face. The blonds' eyes were wide and he was gripping his goblet in anticipation. The second they locked eyes, the hat stopped whispering. _Please don't let me lose Draco again_. Harry squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath.

"SLYTHERIN!"

* * *

><p>Author's Note: This fic is inspired of SilverGreen98's video "What Hurts the Most - HarryDraco" on YouTube; I borrowed a few ideas from there after I got permission ^_^ I recommend seeing it. It's amazing. Many thanks to my [too many to list] Betas! The sequel to this is called "Second Shot at the Stone". Read and Review please!


End file.
